This week’s fresh listings:

 

This page is to be updated every Tuesday and will contain all the latest Coin, Medal & Token listings for that particular week.

 

The more observant of you may have realised that I no longer keep previous "Fresh Listings" coins on this page. 

All for sale coins can be found via the category grid on the front page.  Most sold coins are now accessible via a new link on that same category grid.

 

Additions to www.HistoryInCoins.com for week commencing Tuesday 15th October 2024

 

 

 

This week's fresh listings:

 

 

WMH-8995:  Mini Purse-Loss Hoard of King STEPHEN Norman Hammered Silver Pennies.  B.M.C.i, Cross Moline or Watford type, Spink 1278.  Three coins joined together through being lost some 900 years ago, presumed as a purse-loss.  Two coins are damaged: a third of a penny and a half of a penny, that one being Exeter mint.  The full coin is +GODRI[C]:ON:ST[FO]D - Stafford mint.  All coins Spink 1278.  Exeter is a rare mint for Stephen - there are actually x14 Exeter mint coins of Stephen on the EMC database although I've only ever had one myself.  Stafford has only x4 examples on the database, all the same moneyer.  I've never had one and I don't ever recall seeing one before.  This purse-loss coin is a die duplicate of EMC/SCBI NUMBER:1300.0327, both appearing to be unusual fine-work examples.  Other images here and here.  The Stafford Stephen penny is a very rare coin individually (even Spink rate them at £1,250) but within the context of the purse-loss, and the fact that we can say that one other coin is Exeter, all the more so.  A very rare opportunity.  £1,245

 

WJC-8996:  1625 Charles 1st Dated Stuart Sixpence in Unusually Good Grade.  Initial mark Lis, Tower mint under the king, Gp. A, first bust, type 1: small bust with double arched crown.  Spink 2805.  Issued right at the very start of the reign, so much so that the king is literally depicted in his coronation robes on this coin.  These early dated sixpences are all fairly rare, although 1625 is not the rarest date.  What elevates this coin is the grade and provenance.  Collectors will be aware that nearly all dated Charles 1st sixpences turn up worn or damaged.  This one is exceptional for issue.  £525

Provenance:

Ex P.A. Raynor collection (1984)

Ex Hulett collection, dispersed through...

DNW (2019)

Ex Ian Davison

 

WSC-8997:  1721 Large Scottish Jacobite Medal - Prince James.  A medal actually issued for distribution to the Jacobites in 1721 by Otto Hamerani.  Medallic Illustrations (ii) 454/63, Eimer 493.  42.12 grams in weight and a rather impressive 50mm diameter.  The obverse depicts Prince James III, although bizarrely, his name is not mentioned at all.  The reverse shows the Hanovarian horse trampling upon the Lion and the Unicorn with Britannia seated,  deploring their misfortune.  The backdrop is London with fugitives carrying off their goods to that city and beyond.  The legend translates as, "What more grievous than being in captivity."  It would appear that this particular medal was to promote exertions being made secretly to raise troops and to supply arms to insurgents in Britain in  order that yet another effort might be made to replace the Stuarts upon the throne, not just of Scotland but Britain.  Apparently, the mysterious suppression of the Prince's name was supposed to increase the interest in the cause.  The Hanovarians were well settled upon the throne of the Union by this point although they were far from popular, not least because George 1st and his court only spoke German, primarily because they couldn't speak English!  The Jacobites were masters of propaganda and symbolism (they would thrive and flourish on today's Social Media!) although this particular message, subliminal or not, would appear to require a Ph.D to work it out!  A most interesting Jacobite piece and bearing in mind what you're buying - a 303 year old medal and the history around it - a relatively cheap thing.  £395

 

WMH-8998:  Harold II Godwinson Norman Hammered Silver VERY RARE MINT Penny.  PAX type, crowned head left with sceptre, B.M.C. 1, PAX type, Spink 1186.  Harold Godwinson lasted just 10 months on the throne of England (6th January - 14th October 1066) after falling at the Battle of Hastings and effectively ending the Saxon rule of Britain.  +SIDEMAN ON PAI - the Wareham mint.  Warehan is in Dorset, lying on the bank of the River Frome with Poole situated just over the Wareham Channel.  It was a thriving port in Saxon times and is mentioned in the Burghal Hadage.  Immediately post Norman conquest, barely months later in 1067, the town was literally devastated by William 1st.  It finally ceased being a mint town during the Civil War of Stephen.  With zero Harold II Wareham mint examples on the EMC / SCBI database (and that is a vast National database undertaking, always growing, with entries going back 100+ years, taken from antiquarian publications such as the Catalogue of English Coins in the British Museum [my copy is 1916] etc), zero examples in the recent Braintree Hoard of x122 Harold pennies (and there were some similarly excessively rare mints contained in that hoard), we begin to see just have rare a coin this is.  Going slightly further back, the Chew Valley Hoard of 2019, which is the biggest hoard of Harold II coins ever found by a country mile (1,236 coins of Harold II and 1,310 coins of William I), contained only x3 Harold II Wareham examples.  This tiny amount is all the more remarkable when you consider that Wareham is really not that far south of the Chew Valley, it being just over the border in Somerset.  If the Chew Valley hoard is declared Treasure by the coroner (and I honestly can't imagine for one single second that it won't be), the Roman Baths & Pump Room in Bath have expressed a strong interest in acquiring the entire hoard for their collection - Chew Valley lying close to Bath - presumably at some point to be put on display there.  Bluntly, those x3 Wareham coins will never be in private ownership.  Back further still, we have the 1990 publication, The Coinage of Harold II by the renowned Harold Pagan - the seminal work on Harold Godwinson of its time, and still referenced widely in numismatic circles today.  In all his research, Harold Pagan could only locate a single Wareham mint example.  Some 35 years on from that publication, the location of that single Wareham coin has become unknown.  There are clearly no Harold II Wareham mint coins available anywhere else on the planet but a quick browse of the internet yields a William 1st Sword type penny, GODWINE of Wareham, at £5,000 (there are x34 of that monarch / mint on the EMC / SCBI database), a Stephen Watford type, ROGER of Wareham penny at £2,950 (there are x6 of that monarch / mint on the EMC / SCBI database), another William I Penny, profile left type, AEGELRIC of Wareham at £7,500 etc.  In summary, Wareham is a very rare mint but for Harold II, excessively so.  If you need one for your collection, you're not going to get any of the three Chew Valley examples and as we don't even know the location of Harold Pagan's lone example, that's looking equally unlikely.  £8,850